The Pink Panther Strikes Again

The Pink Panther Strikes Again is a 1976 comedy film. The fifth film in The Pink Panther series, its plot begins three years after the conclusion of The Return of the Pink Panther. Unused footage from the film was later included in Trail of the Pink Panther (1982), released after Peter Sellers's death. Plot After three years in a psychiatric hospital, former Chief Inspector of the Sûreté Charles Dreyfus has recovered his sanity and no longer is obsessed with killing Inspector Jacques Clouseau. Dreyfus is informed by his psychiatrist that he is to appear before the sanity board that afternoon pending release. Clouseau, who has since replaced Dreyfus as Chief Inspector, arrives unannounced to speak on behalf of his former boss, and within five minutes drives Dreyfus insane again. Dreyfus later escapes from the hospital and once again tries to kill Clouseau by planting a bomb while the chief inspector (by periodic arrangement) duels with his manservant Cato. The bomb destroys Clouseau's apartment and injures Cato, but Clouseau is unharmed, as he is lifted from the room by an inflatable hunchback disguise. Deciding that a more elaborate plan is needed to eliminate Clouseau, Dreyfus enlists an army of career criminals and abducts nuclear physicist professor Hugo Fassbender and the professor's daughter Margo, forcing the professor to build a "doomsday weapon" in exchange for their freedom. Clouseau travels to England to investigate the kidnapping, where he wrecks the Fassbender home while ineptly interrogating the domestic staff, including Jarvis, Fassbender's cross-dressing butler. Although Jarvis is later killed by the kidnappers, to whom he had become a dangerous witness, Clouseau discovers a clue that leads him to the Oktoberfest in Munich, West Germany. Meanwhile, Dreyfus, using Fassbender's invention, disintegrates the United Nations headquarters in New York City and blackmails the leaders of the world, including the president of the United States and his secretary of state, into assassinating Clouseau. However, many of the nations instruct their operatives to kill Clouseau to gain Dreyfus's favor and possibly the doomsday machine. As a result of their orders and Clouseau's obliviousness, all of the other assassins kill each another until only the agents of the Soviet Union and Egypt remain. One of Dreyfus's henchmen disguised as Clouseau, is killed by the Egyptian assassin after mistaking him for Clouseau.